"Last night’s session was a delightful time for me. IT WAS ALL ABOUT ME!!! You are so articulate and caring, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time, all the nu- ances you brought to it and your obviously experienced, long- time expertise."
- Bill R.Los Angeles

I CAN'T WRITE THIS WITHOUT YOU : ) PLEASE support my time and efforts. CONTRIBUTE to my COSMIC TIP JAR using the gold button below. THANK YOU.

A Pisces Moon drives the day with a need to identify what is ideal. Pisces needs to be impressionable, intuitive and emotional. Its suggests mysticism and healing; spirits of all kinds; and escape from this mortal, material coil. There are lots of ways to make that trip — some more sublime than others.

Around 6:08PM and 7:27PM ET, the Moon will be challenged by Saturn (reality, controlling) and Neptune (surreal, dissolving). A righteous ambition inspired by a compassionate vision would be one potential. Or we could opt for controls imposed out of fear and bewilderment.

Social expression is amplified, reflected by Venus about to clash with ruthless Pluto on Friday at 8:59PM ET. Tensions between the planet of love, values, money, aesthetics and women and the planet of uncompromising, penetrating perspective suggest the potential for emotional intensity — possibly overkill — but ideally, empowerment. On Monday, the other shoe drops, as Venus is opposed by rebel Uranus, needing an expression that disrupts the status quo in its quest for freedom. So add that layer of Venus-Pluto-Uranus activity to the real/unreal, control/compassion, fear/love polarities we’re seeing in the headlines.

Also in effect now — and for the past few days into the weekend: an obsessive relationship between Mars (action, guns, aggression, fire) and Uranus (rebels, technology, astrology, aviation, shocks, seismic activity). Watch the headlines and pay attention on the roads. In my ‘hood, we’ve had a rash of fires, accompanied by more than the usual wailing sirens. Very unusual and unsettling.

The Pisces Moon continues through Friday, its impressionable qualities inflated by Jupiter at 5:06PM ET, just in time for Happy Hour. A reminder that also on Friday, mental Mercury ditches Scorpio for Sagittarius at 2:44PM ET, where it will remain until December 9th. In Sagittarius, Mercury suggests a need for righteously opinionated thinking and communication, often focused on the Big Picture, and damn those pesky details. Thus we can appreciate the potential pitfall of Mercury in Sagittarius: aiming for the stars is noble and inspiring, but it may not be enough to reach the goal. Detailed analysis helps. But what kind of analysis?

Mercury in Sagittarius working with Jupiter in Virgo may amplify the potential for sloppy righteousness, if you ask me. A righteous idea that is not sound isn’t going to be made sound no matter how many detailed supports are presented, as Jupiter (expansion) in Virgo (details) needs to do. We may see some colossally unsound ideas being floated over the next few weeks — in great detail.

On Saturday, Moon goes void between 8:23AM and 10:12AM ET, before charging forward into me-me-me Aries. The initiating drive of Aries flows easily all day until around 7:15PM ET, when it is opposed by Mars (action!). Not the time to pick a fight, although you may notice a few outbursts in your ‘hood, even if it is just more than the usual amount of sirens howling down the street.

On Sunday, Moon makes its weekly clash with Pluto and Uranus, at 9AM ET and 2:16PM ET, adding depth and intensity to the super-charged social expressed symbolized by Pluto and Uranus in a tense pattern with Venus. The upside potential is empowerment and emancipation — a chance to get clear or make an advance. There is always a potential upside!

Also on Sunday: The Sun leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius at 10:26AM ET. If you are a Sagittarius born in the first several days of the sign, you may be feeling 1) squeezed, streamlined and bewildered or 2) ambitious, focused and visionary, courtesy of Saturn and Neptune adding themes of real/unreal to your naturally optimistic Sun. Similar themes may be experienced by your Pisces, Gemini and Virgo kindred spirits. Would you like to talk about it? Here’s the 411 on personal consultations. FYI, my rates will increase after the Thanksgiving holiday. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

The Aries Moon goes void at 2:16PM ET on Sunday, not to enter stabilizing Taurus until 11:26AM ET on Monday. Moon voids suggest a higher potential for twists, delays and detours in your efforts to move forward in a straight line. Avoid the malls, focus on routine matters and do not turn a molehill of crisis into a mountain. Chill!

And now, the news…

…which I’ve been watching mostly out of the corner of my eye this week. Not much is terribly surprising, given how these stories reflect planetary patterns that were written about in this forecast months and even years ago — here and here and too many other places to mention. So how can awareness of potential events, suggested by planetary patterns, be helpful? And here I’m referring to the awfulness of the headlines reflecting violence and fear.

I think it helps to be able to see clearly — on a tangible piece of paper (i.e., in a calculated horoscope) — that there are certain patterns which reflect the potential for a bewildering reality meltdown, as we see, for example, with Saturn (fear, ambition, control) and Neptune (dissolution, delusion, empathy, suffering, etc.) being in a tense relationship to each other (90 degrees apart — i.e., square). This clarity of perspective can keep you grounded. You understand why some are being swept up in the “negative” potential. As frustrating as it is to witness, this understanding can reduce some of the angst and upset. You understand…and then you can CHOOSE for yourself how you personally are going to react.

Saturn – at its worst — is fear. Neptune — at its highest — is love. These two planets 90 degrees apart (square to each other) suggests a tension between fear and love. Would you agree? In the language of astrology, these planets symbolize other issues, too — e.g., borders/foreigners/control (Saturn in Sag) and no boundaries/refugees/compassion (Neptune in Pisces). These are only a handful of issues related to these planetary symbols. If you’ve been following this forecast, you’ve learned some of them before. Astrology is a rich and complex language requiring years of study to master.

Saturn needs to create structure and boundaries. Where would you be without Saturn? Living in a field under the open sky, that’s where you’d be. You need Saturn to build a house. But if you sat in your house all day, isolated from the rest of the world, fearing that everyone else out there is nothing like you, then we could have a problem.

Neptune needs to dissolve boundaries. It rolls in like an ocean wave, wiping out sand castles and footprints, reincorporating those statements of separation into the unified whole. Neptune embraces everything…as does true love. It sees itself as part of every other self. When overwhelmed by the restrictions associated with Saturn, some Neptunian types may reject the material world altogether, escaping their mortal coils and returning back to the whole. Gosh we are getting deeply philosophical, on this Moon in Pisces day. Saturn vs. Neptune. Real vs. unreal. Separation vs. union. Fear vs. love. That’s the lesson we are scheduled to be studying, according to the Cosmic Academic Calendar.

As if on cue, NYT columnist Paul Krugman’s effort this week is titled “Fearing Fear Itself”. NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof has penned “They Are Us” — in reference to the refugees.

OK, news.

Who saw the Betagoogle link in which Google offers to predict your future? How many thousands of people clicked on it out of curiosity? This Betagoogle thing is a clever gimmick, perfectly in sync with Neptune (mysticism) turning direct yesterday in its dance with Saturn.

Neptune refers to philanthropy and bewilderment. Yesterday a philanthropist pledged $177 million to fight dementia. Neptune refers to oceans, fish and aquatics. Behold, a locker-room scandal involving a women’s swimming team (adding a corruption-exposing Venus square Pluto to the mix). Lo! The franken-salmon cometh. Neptune refers to oil and toxins. Plastics are made from oil, and Congress is scheduled to vote on a bill to ban microbead hygiene products because they are trashing oceans, harming fish and birds. It’s about time. Do you have a microbead hygiene product on your shelf. Knowledge is power.

Let’s end with some fun stuff. If Neptune refers to love — and also dance and music — what could be more fun than the details exposed (thank you, Venus square Pluto), in the mating dances of actual lovebirds? Gosh they are pretty.

Have a wonderful weekend. As we get closer to Thanksgiving and the intensifying wigginess of next Thursday’s exact Saturn-Neptune square and Full Moon, try this coping strategy. Express gratitude. Gratitude immediately makes you a “have,” not a “have-not”. It can convey a feeling of empowerment that flies in the face of fear. Being able to choose how you react to people and events in your own personal world also conveys empowerment.